well, good morning! thursday's connected to friday. we always feel connected to you. thank you so much for tuning in. i'm robin meade. here's what's going on now. we may soon know very soon whether survivors made it into the escape rooms in a west virginia coal mine. rescuers are starting to go down the mine shaft. fighter jets scramble for what appeared to be a threat on united airlines flight last night. a diplomat is accused of causing a major scare. look at the person sitting next to you. chances are really good only one of you will pay any federal income tax this year. although i have to say whoever is sitting next to you at this

hour is probably the person you woke up with. breaking news, four rescue teams are ready to go into the coal mine in west virginia to search for four missing miners. it has been almost four days since an explosion killed 25 miners. the air quality inside the mine has been do dangerous for rescuers to look for survivors. it could take them about three hours just to reach the area where the miners might be. >> as we proceed, there will be judgments made about how far they do continue on the rescue efforts, based on the conditions that they run into, and this is always, you know, an activity that we get into in mine rescue. we are hopeful that we can go in and finish this mission, but if we encounter conditions that preclude that, we'll make adjustments, including, you know, making sure the teams are in a safe environment. >> people held a candlelight vigil last night for the dead and the missing miners, also giving thanks for the people who made it out alive.

one of the rescued miners told our sister network cnn what it was like when the explosion happened. >> started out as a small breeze, it felt like, and then it got hard, very hard so i got out of the man trip quickly. i knew something was wrong, and i knew we needed to get outside. the wind intensified to what i felt like was gale force, hurricane-like wind. my eyes was filling with dirt. i had to put my head down. i couldn't see. and i felt panic setting in, although i knew i didn't have far to go, but it was still, i was scared. >> i can't imagine. there is a news conference scheduled in about 30 minutes. we're going to watch that and then bring you any new developments on the search for the missing miners, so watch for that live right here. a diplomat from qatar is

accused of trying to smoke in the bathroom with the flight to denver and made a comment about lighting his shoe on fire. no explosives. were found but because he is a diplomat he may not be charged. >> diplomat community is not, it doesn't excuse you from everything, and obviously in this case it seems this was a misunderstanding. he may face some charges, creating some sort of public nuisance or i'm not sure what the charges would be, but if it was a serious crime, diplomatic community can be revoked. >> two f-16 jets escorted the plane to the ground. the qatar embassy to the united states says this was all a mistake. t minus 7:30 until tighter returns to golf. yesterday the chairman of the augusta national had some critical words about his scandal. rafer is live in augusta right

now. you're up early. this was a strong statement from the tournament's top official. >> reporter: robin, and when he said it, everybody in the room had this moment of looking up and going, wow, did he just say th that, because for 48 hours from other golfers and fans, this scandal is behind us, let's forgive him, let's move on but then the chairman of the augusta national golf club which hosts the most prestigious tournament in all of the sport says exactly why this scandal affected people so emotionally, because people, specifically kids, looked up to tiger woods. let's take a listen. >> it is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here t is the fact that he disappointed all of us and more importantly our kids and our grandkids. our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we sought for our children. >> reporter: and robin, that comment was unslis i oliciteuns.

that was part of his opening statements. he went on to say that everybody deserves a second chance and we should judge him from this point forward. nike just released their commercial in a long time trying to humanize woods. let's show you a clip of it. >> i want to find out what your thinking was. i want to find out what your feelings are, and did you learn anything? >> reporter: now, that was woods' father, late father, earl woods, underneath as woods was looking into the camera. reaction to that, robin's been kind of mixed. a lot of people thought it was a little weird. other people thought what else are you going to do for your first commercial back. either way he tees off at 1:42 eastern, about seven and a half hours, weather permitting, back to you. >> something his father had said in years past, and they played it under him, and it makes me

wonder, did they tape his reaction to it, could he actually hear that at that time when they were taping it? it did seem weird. i understand the content but i think it could have been executed better. >> reporter: right. >> thank you so much. >> reporter: i would agree, yeah. this does not look good here. a toyota executive sent an e-mail saying "we need to come clean" and it came just a few days before their big recall. jennifer, shed some light it appears on what the automaker may have known about the problem of runaway cars and when they knew it. >> also they knew this was a big deal that needed to be handled and that maybe the culture from headquarters from tokyo, well, not tokyo but from japan wasn't necessarily handling it the way it needed to be handled in the country. in new company documents uncovered an american toyota executive was writing basically to his colleagues saying "we need to come clean about the safety problems, the time to hide on this one is over." now it was sent just five days

before the massive recall of millions of toyotas. the memo was obtained by the associated press. toyota has no comment on this e-mail and with all of these court cases coming up they'll probably have a lot of no comments. they're repeating, "we are already acknowledging we know we did a poor job of communicating" and they've said they've taken steps to take action to improve communication. >> jennifer, thank you so much. all right, it looks to me, now i'm not a trained meteorologist, bob van dillen is, but it looks like a similar line of thunderstorms has moved a bit, is it the same system or is this a brand new one? >> it's the same exact one. good eye there is. >> slow mover. >> cold front, slow mover. temperatures are really taking a tumble because we have this cold front, this stationary boundary dropped down to the south overnight last night. yesterday the high temperature in boston, 90 degrees. today only in the mid-50s. that's a wicked hard drop in temperatures for you. to the west, thundershowers

ahead of the cold front around mississippi stretching in towards alabama. the mobile radar picture, nice line of thunderstorms headed through mississippi, louisiana and now into western parts of alabama itself. here's birmingham, look at the big line of thunderstorms directly overhead, not severe but heavy rainmakers, frequent lightning headed toward the east. masters forecast good part first part of the morning into early afternoon. later this afternoon showers and thunderstorms arrive. snow up to the north after being in the upper 80s in milwaukee a couple of days ago. light snow this morning. get ready to pay up if you're caught texting or talking on the phone while driving. a crackdown in two cities might just be the beginning, kind of like a little tester. the tea party express has a new target, how it's challenging a democratic congressman about his health care vote. the queen of talk is reportedly getting a new time slot, where and when you can see oprah.

we have an early birthday salute for marine staff sergeant jesse morgan. his wife says she and their four children are proud of him and happy to have him back home. >> hi, robin, my name is alicia morgan and my husband is staff sergeant jesse morgan with the united states marine corps. a big, big happy birthday and tell him that i love him very much. he's a great father, a wonderful husband, i've been in love with him since i was 15 years old. i've never been more proud of anyone in my whole life. i love you, baby. >> what a great relationship it sounds like. if you have somebody in the service, go to cnn.com/robin. starting today, the message for some drivers is going to be phone in one hand, ticket in the other.

a federally funded pilot program is targeting tis tracted drivers in syracuse and hartford, connecticut, talking or texting behind the wheel could get you a ticket. transportation secretary ray lahood may push for tougher rules against cell phone use behind the wheel. this is one of the top don't for parents, daughters shaving their heads. for one 13-year-old girl she's trying to put out a serious message, new in 20 minutes. the tax deadline is one week from today. no i'm not done. but listen to this. about half of all americans will pay no federal income taxes at all. ♪ those are the days >> apparently they have legitimate reasons but it seems like wait a minute, half of us are living in this country and not paying anything? >> is that because they have so

many deductibles or don't make enough money? >> maybe they had losses they can claim. it still feels like we're not talking about kids. we're talking about eligible taxpayers here. it seems like wait a minute the rest of us then have to cough up more? >> actually what we all want to know is how do you do that? >> i don't have that. find some dodgy tax accountant for that. critic of the tax system say is the tax code fair if half the country isn't paying for programs that benefit everybody? i mean, that means the people aren't chipping in for our schools, for defense, so who is getting stuck with the bill? 2006, it was households that make more than $366,000. just so you know we sometimes go oh you're rich or the rich, the rich, the rich, they paid about three-quarters of federal income taxes last year. >> wow. >> that everybody gets to use. all right, in other

headlines, united and u.s. airways may be talking about a merger again. if they were to tie the knot they'd become america's number two airline. no concrete merger plan yet. we don't have enough details to know how it might affect you. it might be modelled after a della-northwest merger. back to you. >> thank you so much. if you find yourself rushing in the morning get a wake-up insurance with my free wake-up call. i'll call you every weekday morning after you dial 1-800-robin-hln to set it up. deal! we could know within hours if anyone is alive at at bottom of a west virginia coal mine. the rescuers are ready to start their search now and we're expecting a news conference in about 15 minutes. we're hearing the investigation is finished into sexual assault allegations against steelers' quarterback ben roethlisberger.

♪ right now, rescuers are ready to search for four missing miners in the upper big branch mine. that's in west virginia. actually just hours ago they got the all clear that the air inside that mine was safe enough for the rescue mission to begin again. correspondent richard lui joins us this morning with details on the rescue team. they've had to wait days to get down to this area. >> it's been so tough for the families. overnight men on the rescue teams got the order to shave. a mine safety official says rescue officials must get rid of facial hair so the face and

mouth masks can fit snugly. >> they're going into areas that may have contaminations of carbon monoxide at levels that are risky which means they have to have their face mask on. as we proceed there will be judgments made about how far they do continue. >> the hope is here, robin, that rescuer also not have to use 30-pound breathing devices, that each one is carrying at the moment, toxic gas levels have also dropped, that's good, but it does include methane, which can be highly explosive. >> i would imagine, too, that this is not exactly like you can just walk in and voila, they're going to find what they're looking for. >> exactly. >> this is way down there. how do the rescuers prepare for a mission like that? they have to practice, i would imagine. >> yeah, robin, a very complex process in some cases. they train with fake fire and smoke. it's designed to disorient you as they go through the training. it happens at mine simulators run by the federal government.

what do you is you maneuver around obstacles and crawl through tunnels in this training. the chamber is designed to teach rescuers how to feel their way around, communicate, fight fires and most importantly to locate miner. these pictures showing how difficult that situation can be and in training rescuers are tethered together on a lifeline, a rope that is about five feet from each other. we see in the pictures how difficult the situation can be. >> i imagine that's because it is dark in some places there and if something happens they know where each other are. >> right. >> thank you so much, richard. >> sure. in less han 15 minutes we're going to have a news conference on the rescue mission as it's said to begin again. count on us to bring you that live here at hln. the tea party express is taking on another big name democrat at a rally in northern michigan tonight. congressman bart stupak is also the target of a new tea party ad campaign. his last-minute agreement to compromise on abortion funding helped democrats pass health care reform.

stupak tells the detroit free press he will run for re-election and his 18 years of goodwill built up. a district attorney will now decide the next move in the sexual assault investigation involving star quarterback ben roethlisberger. joe carter is joining us now the latest on this. it seems like this investigation's been kind of a long one. >> you know, we haven't heard from either side in over a week, robin, but finally we're learning that police in mill in edgeville georgia, have ended their investigation. it's up to the local district attorney's office to decide whether or not to charge roethlisberger. this was a strange and scary moment in the nba last night. the denver nuggets carmelo anthony goes down to the floor and stays down after hurting his neck. the teams continue to play, and look, anthony is still lying

flat on his back. the fans actually booed him because they believed he was being overly dramatic. >> what? >> anthony says he blacked out. pretty strange play. he did return to the game, though, so he is okay but i've never seen anything like that, they let him lay on the floor and the play keep continuing on, very strange >> hopefully the people that i saw the fans yelling at him as he walked in the locker room were encouraging him and not going boo. >> it seemed like they noticed he actually was hurt. the issue of slavery had virginia's governor doing some back pedaling of proclamation on civil war history month. it was met with a public outcry. more on that story. and sandra bullock's husband, jesse james, is speaking about allegations of sex tapes with his wife.

officials in west virginia say that the air is finally safe enough for the rescuers to go inside a coal mine. the four teams are going to be starting in here. we're hearing they could each reach the site on monday's explosion to search for survivors very soon. we're waiting and watching for that. expecting brand new information at a news conference any minute now we're waiting for that to start. a diplomat from qatar is accused of starting a shoe bomb scare monday night. he tried to smoke in the bathroom on the flight and was detained. you're seeing the emergency

lights at the airport. no explosives were found. two u.s. soldiers were killed while on patrol in iraq. it happened yesterday in the northern part of that country. military officials say that five other soldiers were hurt. the wounded troops are being treated at a military facility. it is 30 minutes past the hour. morning, sunshine. how are you on a sleepy thursday morning? hope you're doing great. i'm robin meade. we're expecting brand new information any moment now on the search for survivors after a coal mining disaster in west virginia. it appears that the governor there is getting ready to start, looks like they're going over information before they do. here is the deal the rescue teams are going to be heading inside and could reach the site of monday's deadly disaster, later this morning. now yesterday they had to drill holes, hundreds of feet deep to get deadly gas out of the mine, so it's going to be safe to enter. let's listen now. >> -- we can bring you up to date where we are today right

now, as far as on the recovery and the rescue really is what we're still in a full rescue mode. we can get started, i guess. they'll come in. >> so he's just kind of getting the media in place here. we'll watch more for that news conference. now let's go. >> 4:55 this morning we had four crews go in. 32 of our brave rescuers are in the mines right now. they are advancing, and they're advancing on a man trip, as you know. right now we still have the ability to move on these man trips. they'll come to where they'll have to get off and start moving by foot, which will slow it down. our last, the last report that we had, they were at what they call 82 break, if you will, so to let you know, they went into

uvb portal, big branch portal, and just approximately they're in this area right now moving forward. they'll be able to move up into this area here by the man trip, and then it will be by foot from here on in. i just spoke to the family. i can tell you what the family's desires are and what their wishes and what we're going to try to make sure that we fulfill. a lot depends on the conditions they run into. right now we're in a full rescue. rescue is basically that we have four unaccounted for. we want to make sure that we're able to locate and hopefully by some miracle in a sliver of the hope that we have we find somebody, and we do know that our only chances is if somebody could have gotten to the chamber, the chamber is the furthest up in this area here, this is the 22, called the 22 area. if they can get into there, we filled it, that we have hope.

so if any reason we can't advance for any reason they cannot advance the rescue teams, then the families desire and our wishes would be that we reverse to a dual role, which is still in a rescue mode, but as we're back here and if we can get this far we start working into recovery, so we'll start bringing our loved ones, our miners, our loved ones and family, bring them out so also while we're still into a rescue, trying to keep -- that's the desires of the family. conditions will predicate whether that can happen or not. the families are very hopeful, but very prayerful that today we can put a finality to this today, that we can have a conclusion to this. >> there's the governor of west virginia, talking about the families who have waited since monday to find out whether their loved ones are survivors. there are four missing miners,

after 25 are dead. but making wait more excruciate something some of these families don't know if their loved ones are the ones being hunted for and hopefully survived or their loved ones are among the bodies down there and have yet to be identified. can you imagine? the news conference they said they went in at 4:55 a.m. with 32 rescuers. we'll continue to monitor that rescue and that search operation. i want to show you right now, we'd like to go to breaking news that's happening right now the president is signing a deal, a u.s./russia nuke deal. president obama and dmitry medvedev are signing a new arms treaty, and that is happening right now at this hour. i wanted to show thaw right now. it is historic and the two of them are getting ready to do that right now. five more states are joining a lawsuit challenging president obama's overhaul of the health care system. lawmakers in indiana, north dakota, mississippi, nevada and

arizona say that the plan which requires everyone to have health insurance violates the constitution. 18 states are now involved. now, legal experts say that the lawsuit won't stick because congress has the power to regulate commerce. it's a busy day here. something else that's happening live today, counting down to tiger woods' return to golf. he's answered the reporters' questioned, welcomed by the fans. the question is does he still got game? rafer is live in augusta. what do you think his chances are? you've watched him practice. >> reporter: you know, robin, i've witnessed an evolution of tiger woods that has me believing he really can win this thing. on monday his body language was tentative. he was a little timid with the fans, wasn't sure how to react to him. by wednesday, totally different woods. his chest was out, his confidence was high, as he was feeding off of their enthusiasm, and he looks like his old self. i truly believe he's got a chance to win this.

a lot of my colleagues do not. tiger also sent the media, speaking of my colleagues, into a frenzy yesterday when the list of the par 3 contests the players participating in the par 3 could be tests came out and tiger's name was on it. tiger is, rarely ever plays the par 3 contest and name never on the list. suddenly his name was on the list. tiger's playing the par 3. he didn't play. if you don't know what the par 3, it is an opportunity for the players and families to have some fun and tiger's family is not here so i can understand why he wouldn't want to play it. it's really an exhibition for the fans and just an opportunity to have some fun, but the thing that everybody's going to be talking about, the three biggest names in the game, arnold palmer, jack nicklaus and gary player, there they are together playing in this contest and this is the shot, 80-year-old arnold palmer, this was tiger woods before tiger woods. look at this shot. this thing just stops. we were watching this, half of my crew was watching this in

3-d. this is on the last hole! look at that! arnold palmer, the man has a drink named after him, for goodness sakes. anyway, he, by the way, jack nicklaus will hit the ceremonial 1st tee at 7:42, about an hour from now and we'll have coverage all morning long. tiger will tee off at 1:42 eastern this afternoon. >> let me ask you quickly if you can answer, how have the kids been reacting to him? they looked up to him for so long, tiger i'm talking about. >> reporter: it's interesting and i don't know if it's worth reading into but when the crowds were following tiger practicing i didn't see really any kids or families following tiger. i saw a lot of adults but not children. i did see children following other golfers, fm fm, tom waphi mickelson but not tiger. >> we are the place for most comprehensive coverage of tiger woods' return to golf happening today. what's a five-letter word for rumors that scrabble was relaxing its rules?

false. the classic word game is not going to allow proper nouns like the names of people and places. a special version of the game will but that's only going to go on sale in the uk. people are like ahhh! it's call it's called scrabble trickster. in the newsroom apparently there are a few scrabble players and they're like backwards, unconnected? proper names? >> they're outraged. >> exactly. >> i'll be outraged when they start letting german names in, like -- okay, man, i'll give it to you. good morning. >> hi, bob. big line of thunderstorms out, a squall that basically starts around central tennessee, drops through alabama and edging into georgia, into mississippi. its he a cold front. let me zero into the worst part of the weather to the west of mobile. this is mississippi, hattiesburg, big line moving away from you and connecting in the areas around central alabama

and these thunderstorm lines just breezed on through birmingham, not severe but headed down i-20, headed in towards atlanta so if you're trying to catch a flight it will be here within the next couple of hours. we'll get disruptions with the air traffic. rain changing back to snow at the back side of milwaukee, after record high temperatures two days ago. snow this morning, stretching into green bay. the heaviest of the snow whittling away by green bay but it will be there for most of the day. yesterday 90 in boston. today 55. more on that, robin n, in a hal hour. with children and animals you never know what you're going to get on live tv. one guest learns that the hard way when a pelican took over the interview, going for the man region. >> he's got a hook on that beak, too. the fda is cracking down on spas using fat melting injections. other news there are f-- th

melting injections?

♪ 43 minutes past the hour. moments ago a news conference began about the rescue operation in a coal mine in west virginia. 32 rescuers are you now looking for four people trapped in a west virginia coal mine. now the rescue teams went under the mine shaft at 4:55 a.m. eastern, the governor there reports. he and officials are still hopeful that they can find someone alive. >> right now we're in a full rescue, rescue is basically that we have four unaccounted for, we want to make sure that we're able to locate and hopefully by some miracle in a sliver of the hope that we have we find

somebody, and we do know that our only chance is if somebody could have gotten to that chamber. >> we are watching this press conference that's going on, and the progress of those rescuers, because it's happening live right now during the show, so you can bet we'll bring you updates all morning long as we get new information in about where the rescuers are, how close they are to an area they hope they'll find some missing and alive minute miners. the fda is cracking down on fat melting injections. okay, i understand they're cracking down on spas using them but i'm like, sign me up. hi, jennifer. >> except -- >> right there, right there. i say it facetiously. >> just because -- here this is a fat melting imsection. it doesn't make it a fat melting injection and that's what the fda says is going on. there is no credible evidence, nothing scientific, no proof that these work, that they melt any fat at all.

some spas have been selling shots claiming get these instead of lipo surgery and for thousands of dollars these shots will melt away your fat? but there's no fda clearance on this. they don't have proof of this basically the fda said. you can't just go around saying stuff like that. the fda said basically stop saying that. >> i have a beauty injector, you inject t you'll be more beautiful. >> exactly. >> rich men will ask you to marry them. sandra bullock's husband is saying a sex tape of the two does not exist, that is what his reps told cnn. remember, bullock denied internet reports about a tape. james denies reports of other sex tapes with other women, several women claimed to have had affairs with james, who is reportedly getting personal counseling. it was more like a rock concert than a political rally. how sarah palin helped another republican kick off her re-election campaign.

♪

two popular republicans took turns slamming president obama and the democrats. former alaska governor sarah palin helped michele bachmann kick off her re-election campaign. more than 10,000 people showed up in minneapolis, calling for a repeal of the democrats' health care law. bob, it didn't seem like a stormy system got that far from chicago so i imagine we still have flight delay problems. >> we do, edging on through chicago with the wind field still out there. you'll get delays around midway and o'hare because of the winds. who is going to get it first probably atlanta as the thunderstorms edging into western georgia. one-hour delay a possibility and the world's busiest airport raked with thunderstorms. new york city metros gusty. chicago winds delay about a half hour. seattle it's the rain and wind,

40-mile-per-hour gusts possible around seattle. you'll see 30-minute delays. more in a half hour. the families of some trapped west virginia miners are getting support actually from all around the country including from a local hero there, joe carter is here with that angle of the story. good morning. >> good morning, robin. west virginia coach bob huggins, who has strong ties to the state, he just took his team to a final four and he was actually a star at the same university years ago, he made a surprise visit yesterday to the families of miners who have been killed or missing following monday's explosion. he met with them for an hour, brought homemade pasta and mountaineer tee shirts. every help of support. >> they become one big family and i'm sure they welcomed that visit. he didn't want the attention on him. >> he's just there to brighten some spirits. one of the greatest tennis players of all-time is faced with her toughest battle, martina navratilova has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

it's not invasive, and there is at least a 95% chance of survival. now she thought about keeping this private but decided to speak out. decided to speak out. >> when i found out why, what i have and i was so lucky we found it early because of the mammogram, i thought you know what, i really owe this to the women out there that are putting it off, to speak out and say you know what, get that mammogram every year because you never know when it's going to save your life. >> she's absolutely right. she starts six weeks of radiation therapy, robin, next month. like she said, early detection is the key. get those mammograms. >> we're very hopeful for her. thank you so much. >> you bet. sometimes when a song is on the radio, you got to dance. but when a little boy starts shaking it with his sisters in the car, his dad felt like he had to set them straight. ♪ all the single ladies all the single ladies all the single ladies ♪ >> you're not a single lady, buddy. yeah, you are. yeah you are. you're a single lady.

>> oh. bless his heart. he wanted to dance. the viral video has racked up more than 2 million hits on youtube. his dad must feel terrible. >> here we go. we are following breaking news this morning in the rescue mission for four missing miners. we're going to tell you what the rescue teams are doing right now in west virginia and when they might reach a place that they hope they're going to find survivors. plus, this is one of the top don'ts that parents would have for their daughters, shaving their heads, right? for one 13-year-old, it's not about fashion, it's about a message.

good morning. it's so sleepy today, isn't it? i'm robin meade. good morning, sunshine. i'm going to try to wake you up and i know we'll get you informed at the same time. first off there's breaking news right now. rescuers have started into the mine shaft of a west virginia coal mine where there was a disaster on monday and we may know very soon whether there are any survivors that made it into an escape room. fighter jets scramble for what appear to be a threat on united airlines flight. now a diplomat is accused of causing a major scare. and we're just hours before tiger returns to the golf game. rafer is live in augusta this hour, not far from where tiger is going to be teeing off.

good morning. >> yeah, good morning to you, robin. it is the big day that a lot of people have been waiting for, the most watched golf tournament anticipated any way in history, and we will be here live. >> thank you. that's upcoming. first, though, our breaking story, out of west virginia, the rescuers are now inside that coal mine where they think four miners are trapped in a deadly blast three days ago. four rescue teams went into that mine shaft about two hours ago, make that. they are heading for what's called a refuge chambers that are about five miles from the entrance of the mine. the governor of west virginia says that this is a rescue mission, that's how they're titling it still, and the miners families are hopeful but they are realistic. >> the families are very hopeful, but very prayerful that today we can put a finality to this today, that we can have a conclusion to this, and that we

can hopefully start returning the loved ones to their family members. >> well, people held a candlelight vigil last night for the dead and the missing miners. they're also giving thanks for the people who made it out alive. one of the rescued miners told our sister network cnn what it was like when the explosion happened. >> started out as a small breeze, it felt like, and then it got hard, very hard, so i got out of the man trip quickly. i knew something was wrong. and i knew we needed to get outside. the wind intensified to what i felt like was gale force, hurricane-like wind. my eyes was filling with dirt. i had to put my head down. i couldn't see. and i felt panic setting in, although i knew i didn't have far to go, but it was still, i was scared. >> he knew something was wrong. we're staying on top of that story for you. we've learned that they think

that they're going to -- they hope to, anyway, reach the part where they think the miners could be some time before noon today. coming up, richard is going to tell you more about that rescue effort, about the teams doing the rescue, and the conditions that they face inside the mine. they're dangerous. about 30 minutes ago, president obama took a step that he says will create a safer world and improve u.s. relations with russia. he and the russian president dmitry medvedev signed a nuclear arms agreement in prague. president obama says that the treaty will cut both country's nuclear arsenals by about a third. it also calls for onsite inspections. now the treaty now goes to the senate for ratification. t minus 6 1/2 hours until tiger woods returns to golf. he's gotten a warm reception from the fans, but yesterday the chairman of augusta national had critical words about his scandal. well, rafer is live in augusta right now. this was a strong statement from the tournament's top official. you say everybody in the room

was kind of like, oh, no, he didn't. >> robin, you've been to at love these big events where it's just press conference after press conference. this was probably the 20th press conference we had been to. so the media kind of walked in, we've been hearing for 48 hours it's over, everybody's moving on, and then this -- the chairman of augusta national essentially takes woods to the woodshed with this comment. take a listen. >> it is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here, it is the fact that he disappointed all of us, and more importantly, our kids and our grandkids. our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we sought for our children. >> and it was like, wow, robin. he spoke to exactly why people were disappointed in woods because of this scandal. now he did say that woods deserves a second chance and it is, you know -- this is an opportunity for him to move forward. speaking of moving forward, nike, his top sponsor, released

its first commercial since the sex scandal broke and it features woods looking somberly into the camera as the voice of his late father earle woods plays underneath, talking about responsibility. here's a clip of it. >> i want to find out what your thinking was. i want to find out what your feelings are. and did you learn anything? >> and a lot of people found that commercial a little odd, robin, but i guess really, what commercial were they going to put forward, right? >> well, you know -- >> did you have something you wanted to say. >> i haven't seen the whole commercial. i don't know if you have. did they -- do they lay out in the commercial, this is the voice of his late father? i mean do they show you a picture of his dad, of him with his dad? i think that would have translated better. >> no, none at all, robin. that's the commercial for 30 seconds. basically the fans are going to

know that it's earle woods and that's the only way is if you've heard earle woods voice in the past. fans will know that and we the media will have to explain it to everybody else. it's a little bit odd in some -- on some respects. meanwhile, the business of golf will actually get under way today. and the 7:40 this morning, arnold palmer, the tiger woods before the tiger woods, will tee off with another legend, jack nicklaus and then tiger himself will tee off at 1:42 with matt kutcher and k.j. choi. kucher told us the other day he's really nervous to be playing with tiger woods. he hasn't been here in eight years and now he's playing with tiger. >> got a lot of attention, won't he. a diplomat from qatar is accused of causing a shoe bomb scare on united airlines flight last night. officials say they apparently tried to smoke in the bathroom on the flight to denver and then made a comment about lighting his shoe on fire. you're seeing what appears to be emergency lights at the airport. no explosives were found. because he's a diplomat, he may not be charged.

>> you know, diplomatic immunity, it doesn't excuse you from everything. obviously in this case it seems that this was just a misunderstanding. he may face some charges, creating some sort of public nuisance or -- i'm not sure what the charges would be, but, you know, if it was a serious crime, diplomatic immunity can be revoked. two f-16 jets escorted that plane to the ground. the qatar embassy to the united states says it was all a mistake. you know what my reaction is? who do you think you are that you get to smoke in the bathroom on a flight from d.c. to denver? it's not like it was a long flight, not that makes it any better, right? >> good joke, guy. >> yeah, yeah. >> i feel like it's hard for me to keep my lips zipped on that one. >> yeah. >> so upsetting. ru why kidding me? >> who do you think you are, because you're a diplomat, you get to smoke and no one else does. >> makes the veins pop out of my neck. >> glad i wasn't the only one. this does not look good.

a toyota extent an e-mail saying, quote, we need to come clean and it came a few days before their big recall. jennifer sheds some light on what the automaker possibly knew about that problem of run away cars and the big question of when they knew it. >> and how they've been handling this. in new company documents that were just uncovered, it's an american toyota executive who's writing to his colleagues to say, hey, we need to come clean about this. and by the way, we need to -- there you go. the time to hide on this one is over. which as you can imagine, you know, in american culture, very different from japanese culture where, you know, the headquarters are. but this e-mail was sent just five days before that massive recall of millions of toyotas. it was obtained by the associated press. toyota has had no comment on this, but repeated, well, basically saying look, we know we did a very poor job of communicating and toyota has also said they've taken actions to change the way that they

communicate when it comes to safety so it doesn't happen again. but still, you know, you're seeing people inside the company going, hey, how we're handling this is not working. we got to talk about it. robin? >> thank you. appreciate it. you know, i think that's one thing you can depend on on this show. >> little emotional. >> nobody has an agenda here, we're promoting this or that. you get an honest reaction. >> yeah. >> i think is what you're thinking anyway, night if i was on the plane i would have given him a swirly, you know. >> you want to be in the bathroom, here's your bathroom. >> would have made his head stay in there, the blue swirly with the water coming out. we had some record highs yesterday. check this out, hartford, connecticut, 93 the high temperature yesterday afternoon. broke a record. you can see even new york city at central park 92. boston broke a record at 90 degrees. the backdoor cold front has slid down to the south. that means your temperatures are much cooler with the winds out of the east. today the highs in new england only up in the mid to upper 50s, low 60s, and back down to the 50s for the weekend. just a little taste of summer

there for you. just enough to wet your beak. that cold air comes crashing in. ahead of that cold front, all showers, all thunderstorms coming right at them. basically in mississippi now out of the gulf of mexico through parts of alabama. heavy rain pulling away from birmingham. see some light showers still over there. the main squall line is moving down i-20 towards atlanta. here's the atlanta radar picture. the airport just south of town right about there on the picture, that's where the line is headed towards. we're going to get the showers and thunderstorms and delays at the airports and eventually it's going to work into eastern georgia, namely the masters. i think the latter rounds, talking about 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., the main bulk of energy moves through. we'll probably see disruption of play. the rest of the play looks good friday through sunday. snow on the backside of that high pressure region. here's your low, it's right around here. that's the upper level low. high pressure builds in. it's colder air, that's where the rain is falling into, that is all snow. we'll get a look at that coming up in about a half hour. the fda is apparently

cracking down on some fat melting injections. >> they have that? >> yeah. in other news, there are fat melting injections? >> that's pretty good. >> sign me up. so we have more on that. plus, we're hearing that the investigation is finished into sexual assault allegations against steelers quarterback ben roethlisberger.

you know we have an early birthday salute for a marine staff sergeant jesse morgan. his wife says she and their four children are very proud of them and happy to have them back home. >> my name is alisa morgan and my husband is staff sergeant jesse morgan. i wanted to give him a happy birthday and tell him that i love him very much. he's a great father, a wonderful husband. i've been in love with him since i was 15 years old. i've never been more proud of anyone in my whole life. i love you, baby.

>> what a great message. seems like a great relationship. if you have somebody in the service, go to cnn.com/robin. right now, this is a breaking story, rescuers are inside the upper big branch coal mine in west virginia. they are searching for four missing miners. they hope against the odds that they will find them alive. correspondent richard liu has the details on the teams involved in the rescue and the kind of operation they have to do. good morning? >> brave group. good morning to you, robin. 32 people on this rescue team, they could be arriving at that rescue chamber right now, according to the estimated timing that the governor was giving us. overnight, though, the men on this team got the order to shave. a mine safety official saying rescuers must get rid of facial hair so the face and mouth mask can fit snugly. >> they're going into areas that may have contaminations of carbon monoxide, at levels that are risky which means they have to have the face mask on, and as we proceed, there will be

judgments made about how far they do continue. >> now the hope is here that rescuers will not have to use the 30-pound breathing devices that each one is carrying, 30 pounds heavy. toxic gas levels have dropped which includes methane. that's, of course, a very highly explosive gas. now, how do rescuers train for a mission like this that we've been describing? well, they train with fake fire and fake smoke, designed to disorient you as you're going through these practice sessions. it happens at mine simulators run by the federal government. basically what you do is you maneuver around obstacles and crawl through tunnels. the chambers could look like this, as you see on your screen

..

i think it's time for tiger to get back to work, put the media behind him and move forward with what he does. that's his job. >> all right. tiger woods is going to do just that in a few hours. he tees off at the masters at 1:42 eastern this afternoon. like we have it down to the minute. hln is going to have live updates for you throughout the day and coming up, we're going to talk about whether tiger can get back to his old form in the golf game. the d.a. will now decide the next move in the sexual assault investigation involving star quarterback ben roethlisberger.

joe carter is joining us now with the latest on this. i feel like this story kind of dropped out of the headlines, off the radar because we haven't heard any updates for a while. >> you're exactly right. it's been well over a week since we've heard from either one of the parties. but now we're finding out new information and police in millville, georgia, wrapped up their investigation, turned over witness investigation reports to the district attorney. this, of course, all stems from a 20-year-old college student accusing roethlisberger of sexually assaulting her at a night club in early march. now it's up to the local d.a. to decide whether or not to charge him. golden state head coach don nelson become the winningest coach in nba history. normally this calls for a champagne celebration. they drenched him with sprite and mountain dew. we'll be right back. 

the air is finally safe enough for rescuers to go inside a coal mine where 25 people died this week. officials in west virginia say four teams went in about two and a half hours ago. they could reach the site of monday's explosion and search for survivors actually very soon. we just heard this from the governor there. >> right now, it's strictly rescue. we need to do everything we can, every person in that mine, 32 people in that mine, are trying to find those four miners. we're going to keep you posted on that search. there are press conferences scheduled for 8:30, 10:30 and 12:30 eastern, which we'll monitor. we're learning -- we're learning no charges may be filed

against a diplomat from qatar accused of causing a shoe bomb scare on a flight to denver. that's what a law enforcement official just told cnn. the man allegedly tried to smoke in the bathroom and made a comment then about lighting his shoe on fire. no explosives were found. astronauts on the space shuttle "discovery" are getting ready for their first spacewalk in this mission. tomorrow they will start replacing a tank that is part of the international space station's cooling system. nasa is looking over the pictures of the shuttle just to make sure there's no damage. those are some of our headlines we got for you this morning. good morning. i'm robin meade. good morning, sunshine. let's get you right back into what's happening on this thursday. right now rescuers may be getting closer to four missing miners in the upper big branch mine in west virginia. we know the rescue team has entered the mine. it is looking for possible survivors even after 25 miners died in a blast on monday. correspondent richard liu, the last we heard, the rescuers were on what they call man trips.

these are larger vehicles. >> that's right. larger vehicles and this is a dangerous situation for these folks here, robin, but we hope now they're about two and a half hours in, they will get to the location, that they are planning to get to. these man trips, what they are is a railcars and rescue teams will ride during the first part of their mission in these. these man trips take them and their heavy equipment close to the blast site where they will have to get off and then, robin, they take all of this heavy equipment along with the breathing equipment that they need by hand with them. they could be at that blast site very, very soon. >> right now we still have the ability to move on these man trips. they'll come to where they have to get off and start moving by foot which will slow it down. the bottom line is safety has been the order, if you will, and it's been what's been the driving force, is not to put the rescue workers in any type of

danger. >> robin, it's important to remember here as we were just talking about, that these rescue teams are facing dangerous conditions. they may be risking their very own lives going inside the mine to try to help these families. every safety precaution has been taken. two to three hours to get in, two to three hours to get back out. >> even as they do this, they still have to monitor the air quality there. do you have the details on the rescue chambers deep inside the mine, the hope is that the missing miners went to these rescue chambers. they're trained to go here in an emergency. >> and they're hoping, again, that they will find those four individuals. rescuers plan to check two underground refuge chambers closest to the blast site here, robin. these chambers, they're about five miles from the mine's entrance. west virginia's governor saying that each chamber has enough food, here's a picture of it right here, has enough food and water and oxygen to keep 15 miners alive for four days, 96 hours. okay. the massive explosion happened on monday afternoon there.

almost four days ago. but since each chamber is equipped to serve 15 miners hope is the supplies may last a bit longer for the four miners today. we're watching that today and we'll get updates to you as we learn more. >> thank you very much. watching that certainly. we do expect another news conference about the search, the progress on the search, that's going to be in an hour at 8:30 a.m. eastern. we will bring that to you live. five more states are joining a lawsuit challenging president obama's overhaul of the health care system. lawmakers in indiana, north dakota, mississippi, nevada and arizona say the plan which requires everyone to have health insurance violates the constitution. 18 states are now involved. legal experts say the lawsuit won't stick because congress has power to regulate commerce. this is the day tiger returns to the game of golf today. so he has answered questions from the reporters, he's been welcomed by the fans. now, does he still got game? rafer is live in augusta.

you were watching him practice. does it seem like he does? >> you know what, robin, it does. i've witnessed the evolution of tiger woods over the past 72 hours, when he first came in nobody really gave him a chance, he looked a little tentative with the fans, he seemed a little hesitant. they didn't really know how to react to him. 72 hours later, this man is showing no signs of being burdened by the personal issues that have plagued his image. he was confident. his chest is out. he looks like his old self. the crowds are getting more and more supportive, more and more demonstrative. i truly believe now that he can win this thing. now, he sent everybody in the media into a bit of a frenzy yesterday when the list of the par 3 contest came out and his name was on it. his name has hardly ever been on that list because he doesn't ever play the par 3 contest. but this time it was. in the end he did not play it. let me tell you about the par 3 contest. if you don't know it is special to this tournament, as you can see, it is a chance for golfers and their families to have a lot

of fun with the fans. there's no money on the line. it's just purely an exhibition. a lot of people think it was a missed opportunity to bond with the fans for him. we understand. his family isn't here so it may not have been the right move for him personally. >> this is the cutest video, i have to say. >> isn't it adorable? i mean look at these guys. and the three biggest legends in the game, arnold palmer, jack nicklaus and gary player, they did play in this tournament. there they are right there. these guys put on quite a show. this is arnold palmer, 80 years old, this is the shot that they're going to be talking about, regardless of what happens in the tournament. the man who has a drink named after him, shows us why. look at this shot. i don't care if you're a golf fan or not, that is amazing. >> i think -- >> 800 years old, the man has still got it. >> just as elated as the fans were. >> he will be teeing off the ceremonial first tee, along with jack nicklaus, very shortly here, robin.

tiger will tee off at 1:42 eastern along with k.j. choi and matt kuchar. back to you. >> thank you so much. like he said, it's 1:42 eastern this afternoon that tiger tees off. hln will have live updates for you throughout the day thanks to rafer. sandra bullock's husband is saying a sex tape of the two does not exist. that's what his reps tell cnn. remember bullock denied internet reports about a tape yesterday. james denies reports of other sex tapes with other women. several women claim to have had affairs with james who's reportedly getting personal counseling. what's a five letter word for rumors that scrabble was relaxing its rules? false. the classic word game is not going to allow proper nouns like the names of people or places. a special version of the game will, but that's only going to be sale in the uk. it is called scrabble trickster and that lets you play the words backwards and unconnected to other words.

that's a travesty! not to be allowed. >> going to be a lot of arguments over there in the u.k. too. what's this? chief wig. what's that? >> scrabble is the source of many marital arguments, don't you think? >> i know. >> that's not a word. >> that's not a word. chief wiggen's the constable on that yankee network, the simpsons. i'll give it to you. that's what it's going to be like. good morning. zyrtec, brings you the weather this morning. i want to show you what's going on. mean line of thunderstorms coming right out of the gulf of mexico. it's a cold front that drops all the way down through new orleans. look at the line popping up right just north of biloxi. that's a thin line right here. once it gets farther to the north it spreads out and we have the showers, the thunderstorms working through central alabama, just pockets of rain behind around binghamton -- birmingham, i mean, moving to the east, stretch into atlanta as well. you can see the radar picture now picking up that segment of the line as it moves over in towards rome. little bit of a break up. no severe thunderstorm warning attached to this. not a lot of lightning.

you start seeing a little bow feature here. gusty winds ahead of that. could see winds gusting 40 miles per hour out of this. showers and thunderstorms developing and turning into all rain now for the ohio valley, arcing back towards the northern great lakes and stretching back into areas like northern wisconsin and eastern wisconsin. look at this snow coming in. it's been heavy at times. remember, this is the area that broke all the record highs just a couple days ago. here comes your cold air, just breaking back into the region. how about the temperature change too. 52 degrees in boston currently. 60 in pittsburgh. 60 in cleveland. there's your cold air. marquette, michigan, 30 degrees. that cold air edging over towards the east. look at this temperature change too. 62 in atlanta. 51 in memphis. 45 degrees currently in dallas. we'll talk about that and a look at the outside weather in atlanta, still looking dry, thunderstorms on the way, it gets into augusta by later this afternoon. it will affect those latter day rounds. talking about 4:00, maybe 6:00 today is when the masters really gets nailed by this. hopefully it washes out pollen a little bit. i sound like ray romano over

here. i know i do. i can't help it. more on that in a bit. >> i thought you kind of sound and look like ray romano. i don't think that's a put down. >> he's a lovely looking guy too. i'm not a pretty boy. what do you want from me? it works. i love the guy. >> did you know that there are injections that supposedly melt your fat away? >> whoa! >> well the fda is cracking down on spas using these injections. in other news, there are fat injections that melt your fat away? >> should put it in my head.

.. cracking down on fat melting injections. there are fat melting injections? i want here, here, here. jennifer westhovan, good morning. >> i have this powder that will also make your hair perfect. >> your asaying they're saying

it's not all true. >> i'm not saying they don't work. i'll tell you what the fda says. there's no proof that it works at all. there's no scientific evidence that this is really does what it says it does. some spas have been charging thousands of dollars to give these shots, saying give shots instead of lipo surgery. and you know, it will melt away your fat. these spas, though, never got the necessary fda clearance according to the fda. the fda said they've got to stop making foes claims. -- those claims. super cheap mortgage rates, hope you got them if you were trying to get one because mortgages under 5%, may be all in the rear view mirror, shall we say. the average rate this week, 5.3% says the mortgage bankers association. it's a pretty big hop there. the prediction really is that they're going to keep rising because the government had been doing a lot, shall we say, in the mortgage markets, being up a lot of mortgage backed

securities. basically keeping rates down and they're not going to be doing that anymore. >> it's expensive, right? i can't stand it. 20 bucks or so for a cartridge. >> i don't print. >> you have to print your christmas cards or whatever. it's gone. well printer.com says you can save money by changing your font. your font. fonts are so personal i find. but they say century gothic is a grate way to save money, times new roman and calibri. the worst that uses the most in terms of money is franklin gothic media. >> or the bold print. >> so apparently the university of wisconsin green bay tried this and saved $10,000 a year because they changed their font. for you, more like 20 bucks. i think that's cool. >> it's a good idea. >> yeah. >> how could it not be true? >> my favorite font was like right in the middle. >> what was it called? >> verdon a-10. >> cracks me up.

a close call for a favorite on "american idol." who had to win the judges all over again. then tennis champ martina navratilova says she is battling breast cancer.

the tea party express is taking on another big name democrat at a rally in northern michigan tonight. congressman bart stupak is the target of a new tea party ad campaign. stupak's agreement to a compromise on abortion funding helped democrats pass the health care reform. stupak tells the "detroit free press" he will run for re-election and has 18 years of goodwill built up. the families of some trapped west virginia miners are getting support from around the country and that includes from a local sports hero there in west virginia. hi, joe. >> good morning, robin. just to be clear, this is west virginia coach bob huggins. this was not a photo op. bob huggins has strong ties to the state. he just took his team to the final four. he was a star at the university some years ago. he made a surprise visit to the families of the miners who have been killed or are missing following monday's explosion. he met with these people for about an hour and he brought

them pasta and mountaineer t-shirts to brighten their spirits and show their support. >> he didn't want it to be about him. >> definitely not a photo op. kudos to him for being there. one of the greatest tennis players of all time is faced with her toughest battle. nine-time wimbledon champ martina navratilova has been diagnosed with breast cancer. the good news here, robin, is that it's not invasive and there's at least a 95% chance of survival which is huge. she thought about keeping it private, but she decided she'd speak out. >> when i found out why, what i have and i was so lucky that we found it early, because of the mammogram, i thought you know what, i really owe this to the women out there that are putting it off, to speak out and say you know what, get that mammogram every year because you never know when it's going to save your life. >> absolutely right. early detection is the key. she starts six weeks of radiation therapy next month. the san francisco giants have started off the season with

three straight wins, no losses, but they have one big weakness. look at the jersey. they can't spell san francisco right. >> oh, no. >> they flipped the "c" with they can't spell san francisco right. >> i can't even say it. >> no one even noticed until long after the game was over with. they wore jerseys that read natinals. that only lasted for about three innings when someone brought them new jerseys. no one caught it for the entire game. >> was it the entire team or just that one guy. >> just that one. >> that poor one guy, too. he's like come, on, why me? >> come on, guys, don't i rate here? watching a line of thundershowers moving through alabama through western georgia and headed towards atlanta,

world's busiest airport. an hour delay probably within the next hour and a half from now from atlanta. so far so good, no delays. watching for an hour delay to develop later this morning. windy day again and 30-minute delay and chicago you'll see the winds all day long, 30-minute delays and seattle don't put you in there very often but the wind is going to be steady and wind is going to be up. more on that, robin, in just about a half hour. sarah palin's daughter, bristol, is for teen pregnancy. you'll see a clip of that and some of palin's revelations about being a teenage mom. ddd

good morningp. it's your turn to make the coffee and i'll get you informed. that's my job for the day. rescue crews right now are working their way into a west virginia coal mine hoping they'll have good news for the families of four miners missing since monday's blast. now, when the word diplomatic immunity came up, this incident suddenly looked a lot different. sarah palin's daughter, bristol, says having a baby thought about changing

abstinence. rescuers are working their way down the coal mine where 25 people were killed. they hope to find four miners who disappeared during monday's explosion. three rescuers went into the mine about an hour ago they're looking for rescue chambers that are five miles in. the miners' families are hopeful, but realistic. >> some family members have never left. they've been right there and you couldn't pry them away. so, with that, i think that they now, this morning when we spoke to them i could finally see some relief that closure is, that closure is getting near. >> people held a candlelight vigil last night for the missing miners and for the 25 that were killed. they're also giving thanks for the people who made it out alive. one miner told our sister network, cnn, he knew something was wrong when he felt a strong breeze blowing through the mine.

>> the wind intensified to what i felt like was gale-force, hurricane-type wind. my eyes were filling with dirt and i had to put my head down, i couldn't see. i felt panic setting in, although i knew i didn't have far to go. but, still, i was scared. >> miners are trained to go to underground refuge chambers when an accident happens. in about 15 minutes you'll hear details on what's inside these chambers and how long can a miner be able to survive in there, if they make it there. we are learning that no charges may be filed against a diplomat on a shoe bomb scare on a flight to denver. this guy apparently tried to smoke in the bathroom and then made a comment about lighting his shoe on fire when asked about why he was in the bathroom. no explosives were found and it is believed to be a misunderstandi

misunderstanding. you're seeing what appears to be the emergency lights at the airport. the qatar embassy says it was all a mistag. this doesn't look good a toyota exec sent an e-mail saying we have to come clean and that came a few days before their big recall and what the automaker possibly knew about run away cars and when they knew it. >> new company documents just uncovered an american toyota executive wrote to his co-worker we need to come clean on our the safety problems and that was sent five days before the massive recall of millions of toyotas obtained by the associated press and toyota has no comment and repeated they know they did a poor job of communicating. but what it really tells you, robin, is this e-mail was in reaction to what seems like an e-mail from headquarters that said everybody zip it, not in those words, but you get my

drift, right? that said, everybody, let's not be talking about this and you had somebody from america, the united states saying we have to start talking about this now. which is the classic u.s. business way of handling things. back to you. >> thank you. about 90 minutes ago president obama took a step that he said will create a safer world. he and russia's president medvedev signed a treaty in prague. it kill cut nuclear arsenals by about a third and calls for on-site inspections. the president says he's confident the senate will ratify the treaty. t-minus 5:30 until tiger woods returns to golf. just minutes ago the masters kicked off with the ceremonial first shot. this year six-time champion jack nicklaus joined arnold palmer who usually kicks off the event. all eyes today on woods. he is ready to anticipate one of the most anticipated comebacks in sports history.

rafer is joining us live in augusta and covering the masters and he had a chance to follow woods during his practices. >> tiger woods taking in some practices rounds and the gates just opened about 30 minutes ago and he's already being followed by fans and people taking pictures and he appears to be in good spearts and we'll follow him through most of the day. to follow tiger woods is like following a rock star. you're a part of a herd. the thing about augusta, there's no running. if you want to get a glimpse of him, you have to get out ahead and wait for him to walk up. a bunch of security follows tiger woods everywhere he goes and this is just practice round and already you can see a huge crowd following tiger. if they're looking for somebody specific that they don't want to be around it will be like looking for a needle in a hay stack come tournament times. the crowds have been generally supportive of tiger during these practices rounds, but no way of knowing how they're going to

respond to him come tournament time on thursday. this is the old oak tree where the media gathers to meet players after they're done players when they walk off the 18th hole. this may be the only place we'll hear from tiger woods, but technically, he doesn't have to stop. he can blow right by us and into the clubhouse. >> you know what, we just got some brand-new video in from the masters. it is jack nicklaus teeing off. the ceremonial first shot and masters legend jack nicklaus and arnold palmer took the ceremonial tee shot. new information, new video. tiger woods tees off at 1:42 this morning, make it this afternoon. hln will have live updates for you throughout the day. i have to tell you, though, the whole time rafer was doing that report and he's now going to be ready to tee off, this is a practice round. old bob over here is just

giggling. giggling like a little kid. >> just great to watch him do that. usually he's out there and demonstrative. he has a guy behind him with a quiet sign. a lot of people behind me and tiger will breeze by here any time. he's doing such a good job. fun to watch this morning. i want to show you what's not fun to watch. if you live anywhere around alabama, georgia, augusta, included, here comes a cold front and it's been speeding up overnight and once the daylight starts popping up the cold fronts generally slow down during the afternoon and you'll see that shower and thunderstorm line begin to slow, as well. that's what we're watching. the rain line itself just out of atlanta and really starting around lower parts of mississippi and alabama and edging into areas just closer to florida panhandle as we move up towards the north and the west. look at the showers right around birmingham and steady for the last couple hours and the main squall line marching down into western georgia.

you can see the big bow echo right here. 35, 40-mile-per-hour winds. not above 60 mile per hour, which would be severe thunderstorm warning. but behind it the rain is extremely heavy. here is augusta. we're looking at afternoon showers and thunderstorms coming in. definitely going to affect play. i think it will be like around 3:00, 4:00, 5:00 when the rains start making in towards augusta. weather looks perfect out there. rain around ohio stretching all the way back into canada and then wrapping back around to wisconsin and also chicago you're going to get light rain and light snow. let me show you that tower cam because it has been cold for the last day now. i remember just a couple days ago, chicago 76 degrees today low clouds are in and the wind is in, as well. you might catch a little bit of snow. that summertime temperature you had, just enough to wet your beak. >> if that happens in august in chicago. >> yeah, what am i talking about? they know living there that's

how it goes. speaking of chicago, the queen of talk is reportedly get agnew time slot. where and when you're going to find oprah. then we have a shocker for you this morning about your federal income tax. you're not going to believe who doesn't even pay at all.

let us salute the troops right now. an early birthday salute for marine staff sergeant jesse morgan. his wife says she and their four children are very proud of him and so happy to have him back home. >> my name is alicia morgan and my husband is staff sergeant jesse morgan.

i want to give him a big happy birthday and tell him i love him very much. he is a great father, a wonderful husband. i have been in love with him since i was 15 years old. i've never been more proud of anyone in my whole life. i love you, baby. >> i love the way she describes their relationship, don't you? if you have somebody in the service, go to cnn.com/robin. the queen of daytime talk could soon be the queen of evening talk. oprah is planning to do a new evening show on her new cable channel expected to air several times a week maybe debuting next year. the tax deadline is one week from today, honey, i'm with you, i haven't signed anything yet. listen to this, half of all americans will pay no federal income taxes at all. our money expert jennifer westhoven is here and i ask, is that legal? >> it's totally legal and, i mean, there's a lot of -- i'm not taking an opinion on it, but

a lot of people say does our tax code work if half of oamericans pay nothing? nada, zip. th it is legal,you know, it could be that people don't make enough money, they have losses or donate to charity. that's why some are saying there are some loopholes if they aren't paying. families making more than $366,000 a year. all right, committee set up their job to look into why the financial crisis happened. well, there they had alan greenspan, right, still often seen as somebody who maybe some people say did the best job and he acknowledged that he made some mistakes --

>> oh, really. >> as fed chief for 21 years. well, kind of. >> i was right 70% of the time, but i was wrong 30% of the time and there rn awfare an awful lo mistakes in 21 years. >> wow. i would like to say i was right 70% of the time. >> that's a good record. 70 doesn't sound arbitrary. it sounds like he maybe sat down and counted it out. he was in washington testifying in a financial crisis and he also said he does not agree with the opinion that because he kept interest rates for so low for so long that that is something that helped cause the housing bubble. >> well, nobody wants the blame for that. well, police say they're not going to comment any more about their investigation into star nfl quarterback ben roethlisberger. joe carter has the latest on this. >> good morning, robin. they say they're done talking because they're done with the case, but the biggest questions still haven't been answers.

right now at this hour rescuers are inside the upper big branch coal mine. they're searching for four missing miners in west virginia. correspondent richard lui is digging further into this story. the rescue teams, how do you prep for these missions that could be so dangerous, yet, you want to find the trapped miners, richard. >> 32 rescuers, we believe, are on their way right now. what they do is they train with fake fire and fake smoke, as well. it's designed to disorient them and prepare them for what could be the worse as they go through these projects. it happens at mine simulators run by the federal government. basically what happens with them is they maneuver around obstacles and crawl through tunnels, it could look like this. on your screen, you see how difficult it could be to see. the chambers designed to teach rescuers to feel their way around and communicate and fight fires. in training the rescuers are tethered together, as well, on a

lifeline rope that is about five feet from each other. >> then you think about when they really go in for real, you're talking miles underground. you have the details about these rescue chambers that are deep inside the mine. that's the first place if you're a miner and you sense there is trouble, you are trained to go there. why? >> very essential, robin. that's where they're going right now. why? rescuers plan to check two underground refuge chambers closest to this blast site. the chambers are about five miles from the mine entrance. west virginia's governor saying each chamber. each of those has enough food, water and oxygen to keep 15 miners alive for four days. 96 hours. thes massive explosion, that happened on monday afternoon count until today, that's almost four days ago but since each chamber is equipped to serve 15 miners, it will last long enough for four miners. >> if we look at the video, i don't know, the shape of those

rescue chambers seems strange. are they supposed to lay down in them. >> the picture on the left hand side, very small. the key is that they can make it through the time until rescuers can reach them and we're hoping that's happening right now. >> can't imagine. richard, thank you. in less than 15 minutes we expect another news conference on how the search is going and you'll see that live here. the d.a. will decide the next move in the sexual assault investigation involving star quarterback ben roethlisberger. >> we haven't reported anything on it, robin, in ten days. now we're getting new information and that information is that police have wrapped up their investigation. they turned over witness statements and the investigation report to the district attorney's office. now, this all stems from a 20-year-old college student accusing roethlisberger of sexually assaulting her at a nightclub in early march. it's up to the local district

attorney's office whether or not to charge ben roethlisberger. don nelson became the winningest coach in nba history last night and usually this calls for a little -- but instead they broke out the mountain dew and the sprite. >> no champagne was around. >> before the game they were like, who's going to get the pop? one player on the team is under 21 years old. maybe they're trying to incorporate everybody. >> the ohio part of me loves that you says pop. the head of the golf's most prestigious tournament had harsh words for tiger woods.

we're waiting to hear what rescuers are finding inside a coal mine where 25 people died this week. officials in west virginia say that four teams went in the mine at about 5:00 a.m. eastern today. they could reach the site of the explosion soon to search for four mising miners. there is another news conference just a few minutes away and we'll take you there live. no charges may be filed from a diplomat from qatar. that's what a law official tells cnn. the man allegedly tried to smoke in the plane's bathroom and then made a smart comment about lighting his shoe on fire. no explosives were found. astronauts on the shuttle

"discovery" are getting ready for their first spacewalk in this mission. tomorrow they'll start replacing a tank that is part of the cooling system. nasa is looking over pictures of the shuttle just to make sure there is no damage. all right, good morning, come on in and sit down, if you have the time. we'll get you informed on this thursday, connected to friday. i'm robin meade. we do expect new information now about the search for any possible survivors of the west virginia coal mining disaster. there is a live picture of where they hold the press conference. they usually stare at that map and then come over and talk. we're waiting for that. rescuers have been inside the mine for three and a half hours now. they could reach the site of monday's explosion soon. four are missing. the hope is that maybe that four were able to make their way to air tight underground chambers where they could have avoided the deadly gas and find some food and water. that's what the hope is.

we're going to monitor the news conference. we want to know where are the rescuers now? how close are they? we're talking miles underground. five more states are joining a lawsuit. lawmakers in indiana, north dakota, mississippi, nevada and arizona say the plan, which requires everyone to have health insurance, violates the constitution. 18 states are now involved. legal experts say that the lawsuit won't stick because congress has the power to regulator commerce. okay, we are counting down as tiger woods returns to golf today. he's answered the reporters questions and he's been welcomed by the fans and now the big question is, does he still got game, as you like to say? rafer is live in augusta. you've seen him practices. >> i feel that way now, i didn't 72 hours ago. as he's been playing out here

the past few days, he appears to be getting more and more confident, possibly feeding off the crowds that are getting more and more vocal and getting larger, more supportive of him and today is the big day. monday a lot of people didn't give this guy a chance but now a lot of us think he could shock everybody and win this thing showing no signs of the sex scandal that shocked most of us anyway. when the two biggest legends in the game today, jack nicklaus and arnold palmer had the ceremonial first tee shot and such a great moment because arnold palmer hit it first and jack nicklaus came up to him and said, what did you do? just keep your head down. a very warm moment and it was a nice picture moment, as well. but regardless of what happens out here today, the shot that everybody is going to be talking about for a long time is palmer. the 80-year-old man in the last hole of the par 3 contest.

the par 3 special to augusta where they come out and play a couple for the fans. this tells you why the man has a drink named after him. it's in the hole. gives a little tiger fist bump and everything. robin, tiger will tee off today at 1:42. i don't care if you are a golf fan or not, that was a truly special moment. he tees off with matt kuchar and k.j. choi. we talked to kuchar and he says he's very nervous to be playing with tiger woods. all eyes on that group when they tee off this afternoon, weather permitting. many rescue workers who were at ground zero after the 9/11 attacks have lingering lung damage that has not improved. that is from a new study in the new england journal of medicine. 1,000 firefighters are now on respiratory disability, many with them with symptoms such as asthma and chronic bronchitis. we may have more storms

coming our way, at least more than we usually do. this is the forecast from the colorado state university. they expect 15 named storms coming from the atlantic and at least eight become hurricanes. there is a 69% chance that a major hurricane will make a landfall in the united states. but do i hear bob say bull. >> it's very tough to get it that close. keep in mind the average is 10 to 11 named storms and 6 of those hurricanes and 2 major. >> you do have respect for this group. >> no doubt about it. we'll see how it shapes up. usually they're pretty good. hey, this weather brought to you by cheerios. we have a squall line racing on through the deep south. that's ahoed of this cold front and that is a definite season changer for you, especially if you live in the midwest, the ohio valley. in the mid-atlantic by the weekend, look at the rain.

heavy times now just near atlanta and heavy squall off towards the west and looks like a big pocket of rain and no severe thunderstorm warnings out of this yet. later today we'll probably get a couple. that squall goes in towards eastern tennessee headed towards knoxville and morristown area, as well. you pull a picture out just a little bit farther and rain right through ohio getting back into ontario and northern michigan and switching into snow when you get across eastern parts of wisconsin. green bay back in towards just north of milwaukee falling apart when it gets into areas like chicago. you're going to be dry. mainly in the morning around atlanta and then stretching in the afternoon going through the piedmont of north carolina. ultimately by this evening near washington and back into philadelphia could get some stronger thunderstorms. main threat today large hail, gusty winds. out west another winter storm taking shape. snow around oregon and washington state. snow is heavy at times especially the middle part of washington and back into the

cascades of oregon. that takes me to the worst weather in the country. who's got it with the squall line today the winds? no, i'm thinking this time it's with the snow and the rain and the wind. we're talking about spokane, washington, today. the high temperature only in the mid-40s. rain and thunderstorms and snow in the mountains and 50-mile-per-hour gusts. congratulations, spokane. you have the worst weather in the country today. enjoy. more on that, robin, in about half an hour. we were waiting for a news conference to start out of west virginia for the search for missing miners there and that news conference has been moved from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. eastern. we'll keep track of that and as they search, how the rescuers are doing as they look for what they hope is going to be four survivors. the fda is cracking down on spas using fat melting injections. so, in other news -- there are fat melting injections?

tiger woods is going to tee off in about five hours returning to competitive golf but yesterday the head of augusta naestional golf club zeroed in on his personal life. >> it is the fact that he disappointed all of us and, more importantly, our kids and our grandkids. our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we sought for our children. >> well, again, tigser is going to tee off at 1:42 eeastern thi afternoon. we have it down to the minute. what is a five-letter word that scrabble is going to -- it

is not going to allow proper nouns like the names of people and places. it's called "scrabble trickster" and lets you play the word backwards and unconnected to other words. >> i had friends who were freaking out about this yesterday. >> yes. you know how many arguments you get into over the regular scrabble much less letting spell it backward. >> it was scrabble tabu. the fda is cracking down on fat melting injections. wait, there are fat melting injections? i would like to have an iv, please. jennifer westhoven, good morning. >> or are they there? that is the big question, right? wouldn't everybody like a fat meltic injection? the fda says there's no credible evidence that they work. no proof at all of these. but some spas have been selling shots claiming, hey, we'll just

charge you a few thousand dollars for these shots, isn't that better than lipo surgery? and they'll melt away your fat. the spas the fda says the spas never got the necessary fda clearance and the products have not been cleared by them and by law they have to. the fda says they have to stop making those claims. they have to stop making those claims but i don't know if they have to stop selling them. just saying. >> i guess you can make a different claim. >> this may or may not work. all right, just in, we're always watching the job market for you and every thursday morning we get the up to the minute, the weekly numbers that come from the labor department for a couple weeks they've been coming down a little bit. that was good. this week they went up, just a little bit. so, i'm still telling you they're right around this 450,000 level and they've been there for probably a few months basically speak figure you're

kind of averaging it out. a little higher in the later weeks. an obstacle for the stock market to go to that 11,000 mark. some people think that was too much. your printer, you print stuff out, you're out of ink. not only is it frustrating but it's 20 bucks a cartridge. printer.com says if you change your font, you could save money. it says century gothic, times new roman and calibri are some faun fonts that will save you money. for you it is 20 bucks but if you're a big company, it's a big difference. do you know printer ink is one of the most expensive liquids on the planet. >> does it have to be? >> well, i don't know -- i don't know. but, hey, they're getting away with it. you get such a great deal on your printer but it costs so much to print over the years. >> i just send it, i just e-mail things, i never print it.

tennis champ martina navratilova is battling breast cancer.

the families of the trapped west virginia miners are getting support from around the country and that includes from a local sports hero and, joe carter, to be fair, i don't think he wanted the attention on him, he just wanted to bring what he could to the families. >> you're absolutely right. no pr move here. this is bob huggins the west virginia head basketball coach and this guy has really, really strong ties to the state. he just took his team to the final four and was actually a star player at the university many years ago. he made a surprise visit to the families of miners that were killed or missing on monday. he met with them for an hour and brought them pasta and he also brought them mountaineer t-shirts. one of the greatest tennis players of all time is now faced with her toughest battle. nine-time wimbledon champ martina navratilova was diagnosed with breast cancer. this breast cancer is not invasive and at least a 95% chance of survival.

she thought about keeping it private but she felt coming out was the best thing to do. >> when i found out why, what i have and i was so lucky that we found it early because of the mammogram i thought, you know, i really owe this to the women out there that are putting it off to speak out and say, you know, get that mammogram because you never know when it will save your life. >> she starts six months of radiation therapy and, like she said, early detection is the key there. the san francisco giants started out the season 3-0, no losses. but they have one big weakness. spelling. look at the jersey. they flipped the c and the s. well, no one even noticed this spelling error the entire game. the guy went the entire nine innings and said, hey, dude, your jersey is spelled wrong. you remember last year ryan dun -- >> go natinals. >> they're missing the o in

nationals and i don't know what's worse. i would think having two players with misspelled jerseys is worse than one guy. either way, it's fun to poke fun at them. >> hopefully there are other shirts on back up. two long lost brothers found out that they are neighbors. they were separated when they were kids and then adopted by different families. each spent years trying to find their biological family and finally got help from adoption agencies. here it turns out they just lived across the street for two years. >> well, a lot of similarities. and it's going to come more and more. >> newfoundland would have been really exceptional, but across the road is something amazing. >> yeah, it is. the brothers have plans for barbecues this summer trying to get to know each other. when it comes to social networking sites like facebook

one in four of you are checking for updates in the bathroom. and you're never going to believe where else. listen to what the study's author said on prime news last night. >> one out of ten during sex? >> well, you know, we found that an awful lot of gadget users out there are pretty obsess would checking in on facebook and twitter and, yes, they do it everywhere they are and at all times of the day and night. >> what? you could catch hln prime news tonight starts at 6:00 p.m. eastern right here on hln. >> hold on, had better, lol. >> had better not is what i say. hi, there. >> yeah. yeah. >> i thought it was funny during the bathroom, but during that. >> stand by. let me show you what is going on in atlanta right now. the qusquall coming in from the

west and yesterday just a neon green haze down at the surface of the ground and that was the pollen. that should get washed out temporarily. showers and thunderstorms to t follow. here's what we have for the the day. one-hour more delay in atlanta mainly because of the squall line. new york city metro gusty winds, 30-minute delays. chicago, it's rain and wind in washington. more on that in half an hour. sometimes when a song is on the radio, you've got to dance. when a little boy started shaking it with his sisters in the car, his dad felt like he needed to set him straight. ♪ i'm a single lady >> you're not a single lady, buddy. no, yeah you are. yeah, you are. you're a single lady. sorry! sorry! listen, buddy, i was just kidding. >> he cried because they told him he wasn't a single lady.

the viral video has racked up more than two million hits on youtube. oh, they tried! >> it doesn't take much to set a little guy off like that. >> but it's really cute when you go to the video, it goes on and on. these poor parents are trying to back out of this. no, no, no, you can be a single lady. it's really adorable. >> it's great. this is one of the top don'ts that many parents have for their kids. don't save your head. for 13-year-old girl it's not about fashion, it is about a message. with children and animals, you never know what you're going to get on live tv. one guest learned that the hard way when the pelican took over the interview and went for the man region. 

good morning. it's the top of the hour. i'm robin meade. good morning, sunshine. it is thursday morning angd here is what's going on today. >> i was just sitting on the couch that morning, monday. i just felt in my heart, in my stomach that something was definitely wrong. >> breaking news this morning, that rescuers have spent the last few hours trying to make their way down the shaft of a west virginia coal mine. we may know very soon whether survivors of monday's disaster made it into escape rooms. plus, fighter jets were scrambled for what appeared to be a threat on united airlines flight last night.

well, now a diplomat is accused of causing a major scare. we are only hours away from tiger woods returning officially to the game of golf. rafer is all over this story and is live from augusta. not far from where tiger will tee off. hi. >> reporter: good morning, robin. that's right. the world's best golfer gets ready to stage his comeback. why a top official says he has plenty to prove on and also off the course. >> we'll join him live. first, though, breaking news out of west virginia. rescuers are now in the coal mine where 25 people were killed on monday. they hope to find four missing miners who disappeared after the explosion. now, four rescue teams went in with four hours ago. they're heading for refuge chambers that are about five miles from the mine's entrance. west virginia's governor says that the miners' families are hopeful but they are realistic. >> some family members have never left. they have been right there. and you couldn't pry them away.

so with that i think that they now -- this morning when we spoke to them, i can finally see some relief that closure is getting near. >> we're staying on top of this for you and watching for any new piece of information about that search. a news conference is now scheduled to start in about 45 minutes. we will take you there live. richard is also going to tell you more about the rescue team. the kind of dangerous conditions that they face inside the mine. they're going like five miles in. we just got this picture in of a diplomat from qatar accused of causing a shoe bomb scare on a flight to denver. this is from washingtonlife.com. a law enforcement official id'ed him and this man tried to smoke in the bathroom and then made a comment about lighting his shoe on fire. it is believed to have been a misunderstanding. here's one passenger explaining how the air marshals reacted. >> they spent some time up in

the upper galley talking to the guy seriously and then sat him back down. you couldn't even tell that it was really an incident until the very end when they put the plane in isolation and then it became clear that something really big was going on. >> the video that you're going to see here that shows what appears to be the emergency lights at the airport. because he's a diplomat, charges may not be filed. now, the qatar's ambassador to the united states says this is all a mistake. why would you even try to smoke and then make a comment about a shoe bomb. >> a mistake by whom? >> and now you probably won't get prosecuted. i'm just saying. we're less than five hours away from tiger woods' return to golf. he's gotten a warm reception from fans, but yesterday the chairman of the augusta national had some critical words about tiger's scandal. rafer is live in augusta right the now. so this is a strong statement. you guys had to react in the room like huh? >> reporter: absolutely, robin. in fact when he said it everybody had this moment of like, wow, did he just say that?

for about 72 hours all we heard about was it's his personal life, let's move forward and then the chairman of augusta national hosting the most prestigious tournament in the game of golf explains and basically takes tiger woods to the woodshed. take a listen. >> it is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here, it is the fact that he disappointed all of us, and more importantly our kids and our grandkids. our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we sought for our children. >> reporter: and you know, robin, that really spoke to why a lot of people were disappointed in this scandal. so a lot of people still very upset with tiger woods and want to judge him from this point forward. payne did say, you know what, everybody deserves a second chance so let's see what he does. speaking of moving forward, tiger's top sponsor, nike, released their first ad featuring him since the sex

scandal broke. it features tiger looking right into the camera with the voice of his late father, earl woods, talking about responsibility underneath. here's a clip of it. >> i want to find out what your thinking was, i want to find out what your feelings are and did you learn anything. >> reporter: now, robin, some people think that it's a little bit weird, that commercial. >> it is weird. >> reporter: and you won't know that it's tiger woods' father speaking. the only thing i can say that might be poignant about it is a lot of the allegations of his scandal really didn't come out until after his father, earl, passed away in 2006. so some say there could be a corelation there. either way, he's going to be taking his first steps in putting this behind him when he plays here finally. now, we are here on the first fairway. woods at 1:42 will tee off with

matt kuchar, a former u.s. amateur champion who hasn't played here since 2002 and k.j. choi from south korea. we're going to be here all morning long. robin, you can feel the energy in this place right now. people are just very, very excited. not only about tiger, but the tournament as a whole. >> all right, thank you very much, rafer. you know, this may not look very good. a toyota exec sent an e-mail saying, quote, we need to come clean. and it came just a few days before their big recall. jennifer sheds some light on what the automaker possibly knew about the problem of runaway cars and when they knew it. at least maybe this e-mail sheds some light on it. >> it shed some light that there really was some debate going on inside toyota about how to handle the problem of the runaway cars five days before the massive recall. a japanese executive was urging toyota executives to keep quiet. and that prompted an american toyota spokesman to pipe up, basically, to e-mail and say, hey, we need to come clean about

these safety problems, not keep it under wraps. the time to hide on this is over. two weeks later, he wasn't working at toyota any more. >> wow! >> he resigned. of course they're saying, well, that was already planned. okay. but the e-mail again just five days before that massive recall, and this was obtained by the "l.a. times." toyota has no comment on the e-mail but repeated that they know they did a poor job of communicating and they have taken steps to better communicate in the future. >> yeah. hmm. this is our comment, hmm, okay. jen, thank you. so rafer is there live at the masters. i don't know if we have a nice shot still. do we still have him up? it looked nice out there. the greens, look how pretty, right? but there's a storm coming! is it going to hit them? >> yeah, it is going to hit them. not this morning, though. all the morning tee times look pretty good. about mid-afternoon the first

rain showers start pulling in and it will disrupt play. you have a cold front that juts right through tennessee and dips into the gulf of mexico and it's drawing out a lot of moisture and throwing it back at you in the form of showers and some embedded thunderstorms too. so we'll zero in towards atlanta. here's the big city. you can see that border with alabama. look terrain coming in. not severe thunderstorm bus the rain is raking over towards the east. as that happens it's going to start piling up. it is moving in the direction of augusta. go down i-20, the masters, about 79 degrees the high today, scattered showers and thunderstorms back in the forecast. mainly around the mid-afternoon hours and getting out of here after sunset tonight. so i think by tomorrow morning the skies will clear out and you'll see nice conditions all the way through sunday. so just today is the only bad one. up towards tennessee, look at that squall getting in towards morristown moving towards the east. showers turning over to snow, especially across the eastern part of wisconsin, are the u.p. of michigan and northern michigan itself. then out west another storm coming through but before that slight chance of severe

thunderstorms as it goes on by. let me take you live to seattle because the clouds are clearly in place. still dark out there. the visibility not that bad. but rain will be off and on with winds gusting to 25 miles per hour today. air traffic delays there, robin. i'll have full details on those in just about ten minutes. we could know very soon if anybody is going to be found alive at the bottom of a west virginia coal mine. in a few moments here, you're going to hear from one miner who talked about how he escaped the mine. and we're hearing the investigation is finished into the sexual assault allegations against ben roethlisberger.

it is time for our salute to the troops. we have an birthday salute for jesse morgan. his wife says she and their four children are very proud of him and are so happy to have him back home. >> hi, robin. my name is alicia morgan and my

husband is staff sergeant jesse morgan. i wanted to give him a big, big happy birthday and tell him that i love him very much. he's a great father, a wonderful husband. i've been in love with him since i was 15 years old. i've never been more proud of anyone in my whole life. i love you, baby. >> everybody says ah, what a great message. if you have somebody in the service go to cnn.com/robin. we all just melted when she said that she had been in love with him since she was 15. >> really cute. the tax deadline is not cute. it's only a week from today. but listen to this, about half of all americans will pay no federal income taxes at all. is that legal, jennifer? >> it is, but it does seem like something of a shock, doesn't it? i mean nothing at all? and that's for, you know, roads, schools, bridges, defense. nothing. nada, zilch. so that is from the tax policy

center. it is all legal. now, of course some of it is very legitimate, like families that don't make enough to be paying taxes. but, you know, it can also be people claiming losses, giving to charity. there are all kinds of reasons why people can end up paying nothing. it just -- you know, when you've got half the country paying nothing, it's got some critics saying, you know, maybe there's something wrong with the tax code. you know, there are an awful lot of loopholes if half of us are paying nothing. by the way, guess who's paying them. the burden falls on families making more than $366,000 a year. they play three-quarters of all the federal income taxes. all right, check out a family business that's cleaning up in more ways than one. stephanie elam shows us how in this small business success. >> reporter: clean curiosity is what led maggie to start a

business. >> i ran into a book. i picked it up and thought, hmm, this is interesting. i started out in my kitchen and the more i practiced the better i got. 15 years later here i am, still hooked on it. >> reporter: so she moved from the kitchen to a bigger building making production easier. maggie handles the business side while her son makes the soap and packs the orders. >> you have to be the marketer, the bookkeeper. you have to order the inventory. you have to supervise your staff. you have to do customer service. you just have to prioritize and figure out this is what i absolutely have to do today. and the rest of the stuff can wait. >> reporter: maggie stays in the black by paying cash. >> we don't go out and use credit cards. we pay cash for everything. if we can't pay cash for it, we don't get it yet. so we've grown step by step. when we get big enough to buy something, we buy it and then we go on. it's worked out really well for us. >> i like that her soap is wild

but her finances are clean. if you're a small business owner, maybe you think, hey, my company is really great, it should be on the show. come on and send it on in. take a video ireport, send it to cnn.com/robin and you could be on next.

we are learning that part of l.a.x., los angeles international airport, is on lockdown right now. these are live pictures here. apparently if you're familiar with this, terminal 6 and 7 at the l.a. airport, they're closed right now. officials are saying that a passenger going through security had their bag flagged for another inspection but the passenger was able to pick up the bag and make it past the security area, so i would imagine they're looking for that person. tsa and law enforcement officials are canvassing the terminal trying to find that passenger. so now you can see the way the traffic has slowed down too

outside. do you see the lines of people? look at all the people waiting outside now after terminal 6 and 7, part of that airport are closed at the moment. we'll keep you updated. the d.a. will now decide the next move in the sexual assault investigation that's involving star quarterback ben roethlisberger. joe carter is here with the latest. the whole thing that i was waiting for on this case was did they ever get to talk to roethlisberger. remember, that was the thing, we're going to do an interview. >> they have not. they have not talked to ben roethlisberger and i'm sure his attorneys are saying we don't need to talk because they are standing by their man saying he hasn't done anything wrong. we haven't had any new information in ten days but today we have something new to report and that's the police in milledgeville, georgia, have wrapped up their investigation and turned over witness statements and the report to the d.a. now, this, of course, all stems from a 20-year-old college student accusing ben roethlisberger of sexually assaulting her at a nightclub in early march.

now, at this point it's up to the local d.a. to decide whether or not to charge him. so, yeah, he never made a statement. a very strange and sort of scary moment in the nba last night. the denver nuggets carmelo anthony goes down after he hurts his neck and he stays down on the floor. watch the video here, the team continues to play and there's anthony still lying on his back. fans in the crowd actually booed him because they believed he was being overly dramatic. >> well, if he was down, why didn't a whistle get blown? >> you had to wait until the possession changed. it's sort of a long story. >> good thing you know your game, don't you. go ahead. >> the bottom line is he said he blacked out and the fans were like this guy is just laying there. anyways, he blacked out but he did return to the game later and he is okay. golden state head coach don nelson, you see them all jumping around in there, he became the winningest coach in nba history last night with their win. normally this calls for a little champagne celebration but they didn't have any so the players decided to drench him with mountain dew and sprite.

>> plus it's a college team -- >> no, this is a professional team, the golden state warriors. that coach has been around forever and now he's the winningest coach of all time. why not a little mountain dew in the face to say congratulations, coach. >> next time i'm listen closer. i do plan to return to golf one day. i just don't know when that day will be. >> that day is today. less than two months after making that statement, tiger woods is going to tee off at the masters at 1:42 eastern this afternoon. we've got it down to the minute. hln will have live updates for you throughout the day. coming up, we will talk about whether tiger can get back to his old form. live pictures. the weather is looking good so far. 

okay. the new york stock exchange is now open for biz. you may recognize one of the guys who just rang the opening bell. he's actor brian cranston from the tv series "breaking bad." it's the guy in the middle. we'll check how the markets are doing today when we take you live to new york. that's about seven minutes away. first in a few minutes we're expecting to hear what rescuers are finding inside a coal mine where 25 people died this week. four teams bend underground about 5:00 a.m. eastern and we're waiting for the latest update. we want to know have they reached the site of monday's explosion. can they tell us yet if they found survivors.

that's a news conference in about 15 minutes for you. a diplomat from qatar accused of causing a shoe bomb scare on a united airlines flight is free to go. that's from a law firm representing qatar's embassy. here's the picture from washingtonlife.com. authorities questioned the man after he allegedly tried to smoke in the plane's bathroom and then made a comment about lighting his shoe on fire. no explosives were found. astronauts on the shuttle "discovery" are getting ready for their first space walk in this mission. tomorrow they'll starting replacing a tank that is part of the international space station's cooling system. meanwhile nasa is looking over pictures of the shuttle to check for any damage. quick check of the news headlines this hour. good morning, thursday connected to friday, i try to remind you of that, especially since it's been a long week. i'm robin meade. here's what's going on today. first off, breaking news. terminal 6 and 7 at los angeles international airport are on lockdown right now. i want you to look at the live picture and how many people are standing outside of the terminals. officials say that apparently a

passenger going through security had their bag flagged for another inspection but then the passenger was able to pick up the bag and walk on past the security area. so tsa and law enforcement officials are canvassing the terminal to try to find that passenger. look at all those people. and you're going to try to find one passenger. i don't know that this is going to be over any time soon. underground refuge chambers are the first place that rescuers plan to check for those missing miners in west virginia. this is breaking new information here. miners are trained to go to these chambers when an accident happens. now, the governor of west virginia says that each chamber has enough food, water and oxygen to keep 15 miners alive for four days. the massive explosion that happened monday afternoon, this was four days ago, and it killed 25 people. they're hoping right now against the odds that they may find four survivors. rescue teams are making their way through the upper big branch

mine and searching for those four missing miners. one mom is among the many members of this tight-knit community that's just hoping and praying they'll find somebody alive. she lost her brother, a nephew and a soon in monday's explosion. >> for some reason they called an alternate call which they don't do on the holidays. josh just jumped up out of there and really got saved. he grabbed my hand and he says, mom, i love you. i said i love you too, josh. i always love you. >> you know, here's what some of you have been saying on our facebook page. ed write west virginians are proud people and have coal in their blood. praying the four remaining are alive and survive. harold says with the technology that we have today, i do not see why the lives of people have to be at stake as much as they are. john says best of luck to the rescue crew. ay safe. you can send your well wishes as

well by going to cnn.com/robin. so we're about four and a half hours away from tiger woods returning to golf. he has answered the reporters' questions, he's been welcomed by the fans. the question is does he still got game. that's the way i put it anyway. rafer is live at augusta. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, robin. robin, i like when you talk street. and i see that you've got your masters green that you're wearing too. >> purely accidental, but now we look like we work for the same airline. but look at the crowds behind you. >> reporter: robin, the enthusiasm is building. you know what, this has become a fascinating comeback story. i have perceived a transformation in tiger woods over the past three days. monday and tuesday he seemed a little bit tentative with the crowd. by wednesday when he was practicing, he showed no signs of being burdened in any way psychologically by the sex scandal that shocked a lot of us. he seemed confident. his chest was out. he was feeding off of the crowd. a lot of people did not give him

a chance at all in this tournament, but i think he's got a legitimate chance now to win it based on what i have seen. now, the tournament started off officially with the two biggest names in the game today, arnold palmer and jack nicklas, teeing off the ceremonial first tee. it was just a really great touching moment. palmer teed it off first and nicklas said that's a pretty good shot. how did you do that? but the big moment everybody will be talking about, regardless of what these players do, was the par three contest when arnold palmer on the last hole. i don't care if you're a golf fan or not, you've got to see this shot. he hits this thing from so far away. the ball stops and then keeps on going before finally rolling into the cup and then palmer, the tiger woods before the tiger woods gives a little fist pump. that's an 80-year-old man right there. how cool is that? >> i think he enjoyed that as much as the audience did, you know. >> reporter: yeah, robin.

that par three is just for the fans. but today the real deal begins. actually it already has begun. tiger woods will tee off at 1:42 this afternoon, weather permitting. the first fairway here right behind me. we'll give you live updates throughout the day. he tees off matt kuchar and k.j. choi. >> 1:42 eastern. rafer, thank you very much. okay, 36 minutes past the hour. right now when you look at that live shot, nice weather. there's a storm coming. hi, bob. >> yeah, it looks lovely right now, robin, but not so much over the next i'd say three or four hours as that line moves to the east. it's a cold front, it's a big-time season changer. yesterday temperatures in the 80s and 90s when you get across the carolinas up towards new england. much cooler today, especially in new england. look at the rain right around atlanta. now, this is headed down i-20 which is right here, on the way to augusta. this rain most likely won't get there until mid-afternoon. everything moving up to the northeast. the whole line itself is moving

due east. we can see the showers are already there. we do in fact have a ground stoppage at the atlanta airport because of the low clouds and rain. look at the rain through the ohio valley, into ontario and arcing back through northern michigan, u.p. getting know, eastern parts of wisconsin getting snow, including green bay. we have no warnings right now, which is good. you pull away from here, we will see the severe thunderstorms evolve once again today, mainly along that cold front. so anywhere i'd say east of atlanta all the way through the carolinas, stretching up toward pennsylvania, that's severe weather and i think the main threat will be damaging winds and large hail. that's something we're watching. another storm coming in off the pacific, it's heavy rain for the coast. it's decent snow for the mountains but it's going to be somewhere in between for the worst weather in the country. let me show you what i'm talking about for the day. i'm thinking the worst weather in the country goes to spokane, washington. temperatures in the mid-40s. winds gusting to 50 miles per hour. rain off and on with a couple of embedded thunderstorms.

everything moving over to the east. we'll talk about that in about a half hour. >> that doesn't seem very nice, does it. >> no, worst weather in the country, spokane. stocks on wall street are in the red again as the dow continues to back away from the 11,000 milestone. here's stephanie elam. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. yeah, investors are focusing on the negative. a big jump in weekly jobless claims have stocks in the red but we do have some good news for you today. americans went shopping in march. that's a good thing. target, macy's, gap, costco, limited brands, all of them posting double-digit increases in march sales. an earlier easter holiday helped out, so did the fact that march sales last year were so horrible so the comparison is pretty easy. there's talk of a major merger in the airline industry. u.s. airways and ual, the parent company of united airlines, are reportedly in talks to join forces. a deal is far from certain, but it would create the nation's second largest carrier. united told us that it doesn't comment on rumor or speculation. get this one, robin.

bernie madoff's new york city penthouse has sold to al and pats patsy kahn. well, buying the convicted ponzi schemer's apartment, he said, quote, he was worried about the karma but i just love the terrace. it was listed at $8.9 million. must be nice to be able to throw down that kind of cash in a recession. >> she was worried about the karma. all right, thank you very much. that's an interesting point. the fda is cracking down on spas using fat-melting injections. there are fat-melting injections? and then sandra bullock's husband, jesse james, is speaking out about the alleged sex tapes with his wife.

sandra bullock's husband is now saying that a sex tape of the two does not exist. now that is what his rep tells cnn. remember bullock denied internet reports about a tape yesterday. james also denies reports of other sex tapes with other women. several women claim to have had affairs with james, who's reportedly getting personal counseling. richard is going to be taking, how can i say, the reins in the next hour here. what's going on? >> good morning to you, robin. we've got a lot of interesting stories for you. first off, you know those tax return deductions you might be putting on your return? some folks are thinking of pretty interesting excuses. for instance there's one deduction one couple is able to write off cat food. the cats help keep snakes and rats away from their business making it safer for customers.

we've got more for you next hour on other interesting deductions. if you believe we're not alone in the universe, you're not alone. there's a new poll that says 20%, one out of five people in the world, think aliens exist and live on earth disguised as people walking amongst us. we'll tell you which countries have the most believers of that. scientists have found a way to tell which smokers are at the highest risk of getting lung cancer. all that coming up for you. >> back to the alien talk. >> that's right. >> i mean -- >> it's hilarious. >> i can see people like saying, oh, my gosh, we're not the only ones but that many people think that they're walking around too. >> i could be one, you could be one. more likely me. >> all right. a hearing for three teens accused of bullying a classmate who committed suicide just wrapped up minutes ago. now, the girls were not in court but their attorneys pleaded not guilty for them. 15-year-old phoebe prince

committed suicide after what prosecutors said was months of threats and harassment. today's charges include civil rights violations and stalking. three others pleaded not guilty tuesday. the fda is cracking down on fat-melting injections. i know, which led me to say, wait a minute, you mean there are fat-melting injections you can get? apparently some spas have been offering these shots as an alternative to liposuction, but the fda says there is no evidence that those drugs dissolve fat so it's ordering the spas to stop making such claims. the fda says it's gotten reports of permanent scarring, but spas say the shots are safe. i didn't like golf until tiger came along. watched it all my life with my dad. when tiger plays, i love watching him. yeah, he's brought the driven and drive back to golf for me. >> yeah, tiger woods tees off at the masters at 1:42 eastern this

afternoon. look at the pretty live shot here. the weather looks nice right now. by the way, hln will have live updates for you throughout the day. stay with hln all week for the most comprehensive coverage of tiger's return. we have travel problems today. for one, a storm that kind of is plaguing the midwest. but then, bob, we also have a situation at l.a.x. >> yeah, l.a.x., terminal 6 and 7 closed because of a suspicion package. i think they're trying to track down the person that has it. look at the lines outside already. >> they're looking for one person. >> yeah. >> who they wanted to rescreen his bag and he was able to pick it up and just keep walking. that person, i don't know if it's a he or she. all those people, you've got to find one person. >> that's not easy to do. plus atlanta in a ground stop for the next 15 minutes. most likely that gets extended because of the low clouds. hasn't even started raining at the airport yet. once it does, it's going to last an hour or so. watch for delays of an hour or more. new york city metro, gusty winds, 30-minute delays. same with chicago. then seattle, rain and wind,

30-minute delays, but that's about it. we'll have more details on that in about a half hour. >> all right, thank you. get ready for another legal battle between jon and kate gosselin. why jon is suing his ex-wife for their eight kids and why he thinks that he's got a good chance to get custody of the kids.

all of our viewers are vip; you included. if you'd like to take a tour like these folks, it happens every friday -- no, what's today, it's a thursday. it happens every thursday. sign up by going to cnn.com/robin. it ends right here on the set so we can meet you. the families of the trapped west virginia miners who, by the way, we're still waiting on a news conference that was supposed to start at 9:45 a.m. eastern. we have not -- usually we'll get the yell like five minutes until it starts. we have not gotten that right now. so the families, though, at an excruciating time, are getting

support from around the country and that includes from a sports hero there in the west virginia area. joe carter joins us now with that angle. >> we're talking about west virginia basketball coach bob huggins, robin. this guy is a west virginia guy. he just took his team to the final four. he was a star at west virginia many years ago. well, he made a surprise visit to the families yesterday by coming in by helicopter and he brought them pasta, he brought them some mountaineer t-shirts, really just extending his hand of support in this excruciatingly tough, tough time for them. so bob huggins again, not a pr move, just to show his support. one of the greatest tennis players of all time is now facing her toughest battle. nine-time wimbledon champ martina navratilova has been diagnosed with breast cancer. the good news is the cancer is not invasive and there's at least a 95% chance of survival. now, she thought about keeping this issue private, but she changed her mind. >> when i found out why -- what

i have and i was so lucky that we found it early we found it early because of the mammogram i thought i owe it to women out there who are putting it off to say, get that mammogram every year. you never know when it will save your life. >> she's right. she starts six weeks of radiation therapy next month. on a lighter note, the san francisco giants have started the season without a loss. but they have one big weakness. look at the jersey. they flipped the c and s in san francisco. ♪ >> i like that wonk-wonk. >> i hope they had a different jersey for him. >> last year, same thing on the nationals. they forgot the "o." and they are the natinals, but only for three innings. >> not the whole game.

>> so the dunce hat goes to san francisco -- or should i say, san franci csc o. >> john gosselin is suing for primary custody of the eight kids saying she's abusing her authority when it comes to his visiting schedule. he also wants his reported $21,000 a month child support payments reviewed. people magazine reports he's called her an absentee parent because she's on "dancing with the stars." she says she's trying to provide for her kids. rafer is live in augusta, not far from where tiger woods will tee off at the masters. you will hear from rafer in a second.